NADCO is the trade association for nonprofit companies certified to administer the Small Business Administration's loans, including a number of them targeted at entrepreneurial veterans.

The nonprofit lenders have become ever more important as it has become increasingly difficult for small-business owners to land traditional bank loans.

The new VetLoan Advantage program is designed to increase veteran access to that government capital, by encouraging those companies to offer former military members discounts on both commercial real estate and capital loans for their small businesses. Right now about 10 percent of Small Business Administration loans go to veterans, but the agency wants to raise that number by 5 percent per year over the next five years.

Toward that end, NADCO developed VetLoan Advantage in partnership with the SBA and San Diego-based CDC Small Business Finance.

Under the VetLoan Advantage banner, Certified Development Companies, or CDCs, will have the ability to develop and promote their own incentives for veterans.

This incentive program is part of a larger government push to help veterans rejoin the civilian work force, President and CEO Beth Solomon explained. Participation is optional for the lending companies, but those who do will gain visibility for themselves in the community while also helping veterans reacclimate to the work force, she said.

"We feel that it’s vital that lending institutions step forward to help veterans make the transition, because capital access is a problem for all small businesses, but an added problem for veterans who already have challenges transitioning into the civilian economy," Solomon said. "It's a different world, a different language, and we want to help them understand finances and be comfortable with entrepreneurship and get them the capital access that’s necessary to make it successful."